Change Healthcare at HIMSS19 will be focusing on how intelligence can be “pushed further up into the network,” to improve healthcare overall as well as at the individual patient level, according to Kris Joshi, Executive Vice President of Network Solutions at Change.

Joshi said Change will feature several central focus areas. First, blockchain will feature heavily, riding the continued fervor around the ledger technology and its potential impact on data reconciliation, a problem that plagues the industry.

“Blockchain is a great application,” Joshi said. “The goal there is to eventually eliminate data reconciliation challenges in the claims, billing and payment processes in healthcare.”

Another focus will be using AI to address waste in healthcare. Joshi pointed to the oft-cited $765 billion lost annually fraud waste and abuse as one example. To that end, Change will be showing results and use cases of how AI can reduce waste, improve workflow and optimize physician time.

Change is also concentrating on patient experience and interoperability tech. When it investigated large metro areas, for instance, Change found that most have high market concentration and a lot of its customers, be those health plans, providers or consumers, are really looking for better engagement and better experience.

Joshi added that patients should be treated as consumers in healthcare. The trend of patients getting shuttled around “like a cog in the wheel” needs to change. Specifically, Change will be demoing a solution around digital experience it built in collaboration with Adobe and Microsoft.

Improving healthcare is a shared destiny for everyone. It is not about one individual but rather the whole world. Specifically in the U.S., the ripple effect reaches through multiple layers of life, since much of the economy is healthcare and many of the weak spots in the economy are because of gaps in care today. The staggering figures surrounding waste are a prime example and he also said that despite significant investment in technology over the last 10 to 15 years, the industry isn’t quite seeing a return on that.

“We need to get serious about taking waste out of the system. The entire industry has to think that way to deliver value to the consumer. It’s now becoming more important that the industry demonstrate a commitment to that because consumers are covering so much of the cost out of pocket,” Joshi said. “The penetration of high deductible plans has skyrocketed. So it really highlights the urgency to think about cost because you’re not just passing the cost on to an employer or the government. You’re actually passing it on to the consumer and they are feeling it.”